Daily Archives: November 15, 2012

Downing Street has insisted, repeatedly, that any turnout for the police and crime commissioner elections would represent a more democratic outcome than the previous status quo.

But it looks increasingly likely that voter apathy today will cast questions over the legitimacy of the new commissioners.

The government’s handling of the first PCC elections was branded a “comedy of errors” by Katie Ghose, chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society.

She said polling stations were “standing empty” today and called for those responsible for “avoidable errors” in the delivery of the elections to be held to account.

Others, however, may argue that turnout was always going to be low for a new system that the public had never shown much appetite for. Turnout may also have been affected by holding the ballot on a cold day in November.

In the most radical shake-up of the service for half a century, the new commissioners, who are expected to earn up to £100,000, will control police Read more

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FT journalists live blog during key events as the UK prepares to leave the European Union

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Jim Pickard is the FT's chief political correspondent, having joined the lobby team in January 2008. He has been at the FT since 1999 as a regional correspondent, assistant UK news editor and property correspondent.

Kate Allen is a political correspondent for the FT. She joined the lobby team in October 2015, after two years as the FT's property correspondent. She previously spent a decade covering housing on various business magazines.